A Toronto lawyer convicted of conspiring with his lover to kill his husband, a University of Toronto clerk, has been released from prison and is under strict house arrest while he appeals the judge’s ruling from June.
Demitry Papasotiriou-Lanteigne, along with his boyfriend Michael Ivezic, a Mississauga father of three, were found guilty in June of first-degree murder in the death of Allan Lanteigne, an accounting clerk who also worked part-time as a caterer. Both men were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for the next 25 years.
Lanteigne was beaten to death in his Ossington home in March 2011. His body was discovered by investigators the next day, just steps from his doorway. Soon after, police identified his husband and Ivezic as potential suspects.
During the trial, jurors heard from prosecutors that the couple had murdered Lanteigne for the $2 million life insurance payout and any other benefits Papasotiriou-Lanteigne would receive as a surviving spouse.
Prosecutors also said that Papasotiriou-Lanteigne repeatedly asked his husband for money, and once Lanteigne refused, he sent him an email the day of his death requesting that Lanteigne call him once he got home. “Don’t dilly dally on your way home buying shoes and shirts and crystal balls,” wrote Papasotiriou-Lanteigne.
This email, the Crown alleged, was used to lure Lanteigne to his home, where Ivezic awaited to bludgeon him to death.
In a report from The Canadian Press, Papasotiriou-Lanteigne alleges that the jurors misunderstood the email in question and that his communications with Lanteigne and Ivezic are under interpretation.
Under the conditions of his bail from the Court of Appeal, Papasotiriou-Lanteigne will remain inside his house under supervision from his mother, stepfather, and stepfather’s mother, and he will have to wear a GPS ankle bracelet.
Ivezic remains in prison.
Next week’s Feature will contain what we know of Allan Lanteigne’s story and his untimely death.
